Listed below are the important thing occasions on day 1,284 of Russia’s battle on Ukraine.
Revealed On 31 Aug 2025
Right here is how issues stand on Sunday, August 31:
Combating
- Russia launched “large” strikes towards Ukraine in a single day on Saturday, with a complete of 14 areas hit, in line with Ukrainian officers.
- No less than one individual was killed and 30 others wounded in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia area, whereas residential buildings had been hit and scores of houses left with out fuel or electrical energy. The cities of Dnipro and Pavlohrad within the central area of Dnipropetrovsk additionally got here beneath assault early on Saturday, inflicting fires.
- Ukraine’s Air Power stated it had downed 510 of 537 drones and 38 of 45 missiles launched by Russia within the in a single day assault.
- In Ukraine’s Kherson, a 74-year-old man was additionally killed when Russian forces shelled town, in line with officers.
- The chief of Russia’s common employees, Valery Gerasimov, stated that Russian forces are waging a nonstop offensive alongside virtually the complete entrance line in Ukraine and have the “strategic initiative”.
- In a speech to his deputies, Gerasimov additionally stated that Russian forces now management 99.7 p.c of Ukraine’s Luhansk area, 79 p.c of the Donetsk area, 74 p.c of the Zaporizhia area and 76 p.c of the Kherson area. He went on to say that Russian troops have virtually utterly blockaded town of Kupiansk, within the Kharkiv area, and management about half of its space.
- However Ukrainian navy spokesperson Viktor Trehubov stated that Kyiv’s forces had scored front-line successes, conserving Russian troops from seizing targets within the Donetsk area and halting additional advances into the Dnipropetrovsk area. In a single space, he stated, Kyiv’s troops had surrounded Russian models.
- Ukraine’s navy additionally claimed assaults in Russia, saying it had struck the Krasnodar and Syzran oil refineries in a single day on Saturday, setting off fires at each services.
- Russia’s TASS state information company additionally stated that Ukrainian shelling left greater than 17,000 individuals with out energy within the border city of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk area.
- Kursk’s Appearing Governor Alexander Khinshtein stated that 201 our bodies have been discovered within the Russian area since January 1, following Ukraine’s invasion of the Russian area, and that 590 persons are nonetheless lacking.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated that its forces shot down 233 Ukrainian drones, one guided bomb and 4 missiles in a 24-hour interval, in line with TASS.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been pushing for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the Kremlin of utilizing “the time meant for getting ready a leaders’-level [peace] assembly to organise new large assaults”, and referred to as for extra worldwide sanctions on Moscow and its backers.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Zelenskyy over the cellphone and reaffirmed his assist for a peaceable settlement in Ukraine, saying that “India extends full assist to all efforts” to revive peace and stability, in line with a press release from New Delhi.
- The European Union’s high diplomat, Kaja Kallas, stated the bloc will look at tips on how to use frozen Russian belongings to fund Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction after the battle. However confiscating the belongings – that are price 210 billion euros ($245.85bn) – now shouldn’t be politically sensible, she stated.
- Kallas’s feedback come after some EU nations, together with Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, referred to as for the belongings to be seized now and be used to assist Kyiv. However EU heavyweights France and Germany – together with Belgium, which holds many of the belongings – have rebuffed the thought.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned Russia’s persevering with assaults on Ukraine, saying that diplomatic efforts in latest weeks had been “answered with an much more aggressive method by this regime in Moscow towards the inhabitants in Ukraine”.
- “This will even not cease till we guarantee collectively that Russia, a minimum of for financial causes, and maybe additionally for navy causes … can now not proceed this battle,” Merz added in feedback at an occasion within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
- United States President Donald Trump outlined how his coverage on Ukraine matches along with his America First agenda, saying, “We’re not spending any cash within the battle”, describing this as a “large distinction” as compared with the “a whole bunch of billions of {dollars}” the US was beforehand spending.
- He additionally advised The Each day Caller that the US is not going to ship floor troops to Ukraine and that the US now sells gear to NATO. “We don’t promote it to Ukraine. We promote it to NATO. They pay for the gear,” Trump stated.
Weapons
- Ukraine’s Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal introduced that the US State Division had accepted the sale of Patriot air defence techniques for Ukraine for an estimated value of $179.1m and satellite tv for pc communications companies price $150m.
